TREND: ETHEREAL
Kristina Flanagan, 17
Senior, Notre Dame High School, Greenwich Village
For 17-year-old Kristina Flanagan, ease was key when picking her blush-hued Badgley Mischka gown. “I wanted something comfortable that I can move around in,” says Flanagan. “The dress was very Greek-looking and very flowing.”
Her ethereal impulse was right on, according to Andrew Bevan, style features editor for Teen Vogue. “We’ve noticed this very fairy-tale moment,” Bevan says of 2012 prom trends. “It’s a very romantic Chanel [look], the positive backlash to the oversexualized bandage dress that we’ve seen these last couple of years.”
Flanagan, who is renting her $795 gown for $125 from Rent the Runway for her friend’s May 24 prom (she is attending three proms in total, natch), found inspiration in another (fictional) girl about town, Serena van der Woodsen of “Gossip Girl.”
In one episode, Blake Lively’s character dons a white Oscar de la Renta gown — topped with a messy updo — an effortless look bound to send the prep school paparazzi abuzz when Flanagan mimics it later this month.
She’s just a hair shy of finding the accessories to complete her look. Flanagan says, “I’m trying to find a headband like hers.”

TREND: SEXY CUTOUTS
Alessia Salvatore, 17
Senior, the Marymount School, Upper East Side
Alessia Salvatore wanted a modern dress for her June 1 prom. So what better A-list favorite to style herself after than starlet Selena Gomez?
“[She] had a cutout dress and I thought [the look] was sexy but not obnoxious,” says Salvatore.
“It’s flattering, and I like how it shows some skin but not in the areas where it would be presumed you’d show.”
She’s not the only young lady looking to the red carpet for style inspiration.
Kim Collins, senior vice president of online retailer PromGirl, says that young girls are eager to test out celebs’ high-wattage styles. “You see the celebrities that just sparkle on the red carpet, and it’s high school girls’ big night. They want to shine, too!” says Collins.
“There are two different directions [celeb inspiration] is going,” says Marissa Rosenblum, senior market editor at Seventeen. “It’s the Katy Perry/Lady Gaga/Nicki Minaj looks, and then it’s the opposite going on — Lily Collins, Dakota Fanning — the sophisticated young girl.”
Salvatore’s pick, a blue BCBG dress, was a fashionable one that combined bright, bold color with the sexy silhouette.
“Color is a really big statement for this prom season,” says Caroline Maguire, fashion director for bloomingdales.com. Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss agrees.
“Neon and bright colors are a real trend in general in fashion right now, and I think we’re seeing that in prom fashion as well,” she says.

Alex Afervez

Selena Gomez rocked a sexy cutout dress similar to Alessia Salvatore’s (pictured) at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards.

Jordan Strauss/WireImage

TREND: PRICEY
Hailley Ciriacks, 19
Freshman, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa.
Hailley Ciriacks toiled away for an entire semester to pay for her $640 prom stunner. The catch?
She’s not even in high school.
Ciriacks is a freshman in college, but she wanted to ensure that she made her high school beau’s big night as picture-perfect as possible. (He’s a senior at the Dwight School on the Upper West Side.) So even though she bought her own prom dress on eBay last year, she stepped it up a notch for her boyfriend’s fancy-schmancy private-school bash.
“I know his prom is going to be much more extravagant and fancy than mine because I went to public school,” she says. “I want to make the night as nice as possible for him because he only gets one prom — and mine was awful!”
Even though Ciriacks admits that $640 was “a ridiculous amount of money to spend on something you only wear once,” she’s not the only person ponying up for prom. According to a 2012 survey by Visa, prom spending is at its highest ever this year, with northeastern families spending an average of $1,944 for the big event.
“Our average price point has definitely gone up this year,” says Collins of PromGirl. While the site’s average dress costs about $300, one best seller is Ciriacks’ full-length, strapless beaded gown.
Some promgoers are “willing to spend whatever it takes to feel the most beautiful, and to feel like she has the most stand-out dress,” says Rosenblum.
“I think I’m actually going to be spending less than the other girls at the prom,” admits Ciriacks, “which is insane.”

Alex Afervez

TREND: SHORT
Heather Braverman, 15
Freshman, the Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ
Technically, Heather Braverman didn’t have a choice when she picked out a short stunner for prom with her boyfriend, a senior. “We have a Facebook page where all the girls post pictures of their prom dresses, and I originally had a long one and they told me that, traditionally, only upperclassmen wear long dresses,” she says.
Braverman returned her first gown and picked out a short, gold, sequined number that packed plenty of punch. “It’s not understated, but it’s classy,” says Braverman.
Plus, color was key. “My boyfriend has red hair, so there weren’t a lot of colors that looked good,” she says.
“We’re definitely seeing a lot of short dresses,” says Collins. “It’s kind of been an ongoing trend for the last couple of years.”